The Rotary Club of Boulder Valley is excited to announce the fourth annual Boulder Valley Beer Fest to be held on Saturday September 9 from 2:00 – 6:30pm. This is a fundraising event hosted by Boulder Valley Rotary Club that supports its many active community projects from improving literacy locally to helping eradicate polio globally.

This event is held in conjunction with Superior’s Chili Fest.

Use promo code JULY to save $5 off General Admission or $10 off VIP tickets.

Waiting for summer is always bittersweet. Here in Colorado, a late-May snowstorm was quickly followed by 90°+ heat and before we knew it, the kids were out of school! And here we are, just days away from the beginning of July, figuring out how to best spend those precious days and weekends of warm weather. At New Planet Beer, we love the outdoors, and in that spirit, we’ve compiled a list of outdoor themed activities for you and yours to tackle in the last few months of summer.

Camping

Everyone has a different definition of camping. To some hardcore enthusiasts, it isn’t “camping” unless you’re backpacking 10+ miles into the wilderness with nothing but dried beans and a water filter for survival. If that’s your MO: good for you! We’d just encourage you to pack in an extra 12 ounces of our mountain-ready Seclusion IPA to keep you company and reward you once you set up camp!

For others, it isn’t camping unless it is “glamping.” That’s right: the combination of glamour and camping. Why leave behind the comforts of showers and running water if you don’t have to? For those of you who prefer the RV, bring the whole family with you to our amazing National and State Parks. These gems are perfect for families to explore the best of what mother nature has to offer.

Lastly, you may be an inbetweener, and you don’t mind sleeping on the ground in your tent, but you don’t want to hike for miles and miles to get there. Many weekend warriors are more than happy to car camp: break out the tent, sleeping bag, and lantern, and just sit by a campfire telling stories with friends as you listen to the nearby water and look up at the cloudless, star filled night.

Fishing

Another summertime favorite, fishing is a great way to while away the summertime hours. Bait fishing or fly fishing? People swear by both, so we’re not going to choose sides here! Whatever your passion, grab your rod and reel or pole and tackle box and hit the rivers and lakes near your home.

If you’ve got kids, fishing is a great way to teach them about local ecosystems, aquatic animal life, and (if you dare!) the peace and quiet that comes with being silent trying not to “scare the fish.” (Author’s note: I’m a lot older now, and I still don’t know if noises actually do scare fish away or if I just talked too much as a kid and it was a trick my dad invented to get some silence out of me…)

Water Parks

Getting away for a night or two or even a long day to fish or camp isn’t always feasible for everyone, so on those hot days, find a local swimming pool or water park. With waterslides and rides, kids of all ages can cool down and have a ball splashing through the parks. Before you go, call ahead and ask if they have group discounts or see if local grocery stores offer any coupons for the parks. You’d be surprised how many offer deals to families in the summer time. Most places also let you bring in food for snacks and lunches, but be sure to leave those glass bottles at home!

Craft Brew Festivals

It wouldn’t be summer (at least in our minds) without one or two craft beer festivals! Summertime offers an endless array of brew fests, both large and small. We’ve seen advertisements for Belgian Beer Fests, festivals for breweries 5 years old or younger, local neighborhood fests, the list goes on.

Why do we love them so much? It combines two of our favorite things: beer and being outside in the sunshine. There is something really fun and unique about walking around from tent to tent with a small tasting glass and shooting the breeze with brewers and festival attendees. Friendships are made, people have smiles on their faces, and the beers are flowing! So hitch a ride and find a beer fest that interests you this summer!

No matter what you decide to do with your summertime hours, we hope that you enjoy the most of it with the people you love and with a cold beer in hand. And if you do find yourself in the Great Outdoors this summer, don’t forget New Planet Beer’s insanely portable six-packs of Seclusion IPA and Tread Lightly Ale!

In the immortal words of Matthew McConaughey, “Alright alright alright.”

School’s back in session! Last month, we started class with some “Lesson Plans” to educate you, our beloved beer drinkers, on matters relating to how we do things at New Planet Beer. Today, we continue the lesson plans!

Are there any styles of beer that are harder to make gluten-free or gluten-reduced?

Not so much. Just about every style you can think of is brewable whether it is crafted to be gluten-free or to remove gluten. In other words, there isn’t much standing in our way when it comes to making the best beer styles accessible to our hop-head, gluten-conscious consumer. If you truly want a wheat beer…you are out of luck.

Speaking of hops…What’s the difference between adding hops to traditional brews and gluten-free or gluten-reduced ones?

Great question, Grasshopper. Hop utilization (how well the hops have imparted their taste and aroma into the beer) is different in gluten-free grain (what we use) versus barley grain (traditional beer grain). What this means for New Planet Beer is that managing bitterness in gluten-free is a harder task than in conventional beer. Our beers that are brewed with gluten-free grain take on bitterness at a higher level than those of traditional grains, so we need to be really careful when adding hops to get it just right.

Do you feel that there is a stigma around gluten-free or gluten-reduced beers?

Definitely. But like many things in life, the best way to cure stigma is through education, and we’re happy to be educating the masses on just how awesome gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers (especially ours!) are. Luckily, though, we at New Planet see a positive shift in perception as gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers keep getting better and better.

We still believe that the best education is to sample the beers at craft beer festivals, local liquor stores, and restaurants. We know that when folks get a chance to taste the beers themselves, a lot of those preconceived notions melt away, and they’re walking away with a new six pack in tow!

What are you brewing right now?

Right now, we’re brewing our new Blonde Ale that just won Gold Medal at the Denver International Competition ( April 2017) made from Colorado Millet, 100% gluten-free grain. This is a recipe that we’ve been refining and perfecting for a while now. This marks our third batch, and we’re excited for everyone to try it!

Without sounding braggadocious (not something Matthew McConaughey is known to say!), we really believe that this is a game-changer.As we mentioned before, there is still a stigma around gluten-free and gluten-reduced beers, and if education is the best cure for that, then this is our PhD thesis…thought, time, care, and passion has gone into this beer, and we see it competing with traditional craft beers like no other gluten-free or gluten-reduced beer has ever done before.

Alright. Great. But how much is this game-changer gonna cost me?

Ha! Fair question. Let us put it this way: when we set out to craft New Planet’s Blonde Ale, we wanted to create a beer that reminded us of the beers we were loving before our Celiac diagnosis. In other words, we wanted a beer that had character, flavor, and personality in spades. A true craft beer. With our Blonde Ale, we’ve got it dialed in. We also wanted to make it affordable, so we’ve priced it competitively in our home market for just $8.99 per six pack. Good beer does not need to cost $16.99 a four pack if you know what I mean.

Front Range Rally

Saturday, May 20, 2017 from 1:30 pm – 7 pm
Loveland, CO

Breakthru Tradeshow

Wednesday, June 1, 2017

The Gluten-Free Gallup 5k run/walk

Saturday, June 4, 2017 from 8 am – 12 pm

The Denver-Metro Celiac Support Association is excited to announce our sixth annual Gluten Free Gallop 5k run/walk to raise awareness of Celiac Disease and gluten related disorders. The Gluten Free Gallop will take place at Clement Park in Littleton, CO on Sunday June 4th, 2017. This is a fun family, stroller and dog friendly event.

Summer is just around the corner, and that is getting the brew crew at New Planet Beer really excited! Don’t get us wrong, we love a fresh blanket of snow on the Rockies, but there’s just something about a cloudless blue-sky spring day that gets us going!

But, as any parent with a kid will remind you: It isn’t summer yet. School’s still in session. In that spirit, we’ve developed a few “Lesson Plans” we wanted to share with you. Below is Lesson 1. Stay tuned for more lessons over the next few weeks!

Alright, class: Pay attention!

At New Planet Beer, we brew only gluten free and gluten reduced beer. In fact, we’re the only brewery around that has that claim to fame. There are other breweries who brew gluten free or gluten reduced beers, but not both.

Please raise your hand if you know the answers to the following questions.

What’s the difference between gluten free and gluten reduced?

Easy. “Gluten Free” is defined by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and it gets even more in depth when discussing gluten free beer.

The definition from the FDA is long and boring, but in truth, those details makes a world of difference to our customers and how we brew our beer.

In short, in order to call a beer “gluten free” (and be labeled as such by the FDA), it must be brewed with ingredients that test out less than 20 Parts Per million (PPM), and the brewing process itself must mitigate cross-contamination with gluten. Finally, the resulting beer must be less than 20 PPM, too.

Long story short: Any gluten free beer will have a label saying it is 100% gluten free. No label? Not gluten free. Simple as that!

Okay, so what about Gluten-reduced?

Gluten-reduced is a bit different. It is a brewing industry term and isn’t regulated by the FDA, but is a category created and tested by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau (TTB)…try to say that fast five times after a few beers!

While the TTB may not be the FDA, it is still strict! Just to give you an idea of the testing the TTB puts a gluten-reduced beer through: New Planet’s Seclusion IPA and the Tread Lightly Ale both went through the TTB testing process. And it took 12 months to get approval!

Why so long? Well, the TTB performs lab tests, formula ingredient reviews, as well as tests the beer for PPM of gluten. We’re proud that our beers that are gluten-reduced test out at less that 5 PPM…that’s pretty awesome.

Using Gluten-free or Gluten-reduced ingredients is one thing, but how do we ensure that our beers stay that way?

This is a question we get a lot. Gluten, after all, seems to be everywhere.

We have incredibly strict policies at New Planet that guides how we brew our beer. For example, we only brew gluten-free beers on Mondays. Why Mondays? Because our brewery undergoes a deep clean on Sunday. This eliminates any traces of gluten that could remain from when we brew our gluten-reduced brews.

By doing it this way, we ensure that our equipment is in pristine condition, and no other beers are brewed during this time. Our adherence to this policy, among many others, ensures the integrity of our beers.

Alright class, that’s it for today. Your homework for the week is to crack open a New Planet Beer and kick your feet up. Good luck!